Runner's Forum: Sore knees

Hi.  I am doing my first 1/2 marathon on Saturday.  I ran 10 miles this last Saturday, which is the longest I have ever run.  However, my knees were so sore by the end on the night I could hardly walk.  They felt better Sunday and are fine today.  Any tips on how to avoid this?

Probably also need to do some quad strengthening.  There's a small spot on this in this months Runners World.  Says to put your back against the wall and have your thighs not quite at a 90 degree parallel to the ground.  When I did some of these smaller/shorter runs, I had some of this until my muscles built up some.  You lose some of the elasticity of your muscles as well on the longer runs until you get them built up.

I also agree about the shoes though...get fitted, makes a big difference.

It may be too late to address this before your race, but I was having terrible knee problems and realized it was how I was running that was causing it: elbows swinging back in an outward motion vs. more of a straight back motion was causing my upper body to twist too much and affect how I was landing, ultimately leading to knee problems. I couldn't make it past 6 miles without feeling debilitating knee pain. It would go away after a few days but would come right back on my next run. My long run this weekend was 10 miles and I've increased my weekly mileage to 20-25 miles with no problems. Part of this could be the strengthening of my legs over time but it was such an abrupt difference from pain to no pain that I'm convinced it was mainly the change in form.